A Lehigh Acres man is threatening a law suit against the Lehigh Acres Fire and Rescue Dept. because he says they took away his right to refuse medical treatment and he is stuck with a $550 ambulance bill that he says he is not going to pay.

Kenneth Rothwell appeared before the fire district’s board of commissioners and asked that the ambulance fee be waived since he was taken against his will and blamed an EMT who said he had to go to the hospital.

He told commissioners that he had gone out for a walk and had collapsed about 120 feet from his home on Parkdale Street, and that neighbors came and revived him and walked him home. Someone apparently called 911 and both the fire department showed up with an ambulance and a Sheriff’s deputy also showed up.

They knocked on his front door, he said, and he was asked if he was the man who had collapsed outside.

He told them he was and said that the EMT checked his vitals and told him his sugar was 476, which is very high, and that he had a high blood pressure. He said he had been sitting in his home drinking a cool drink when they knocked on his door.

He told commissioners at their monthly meeting on April 19 that the paramedic from the fire department insisted that he get in the ambulance so he could be taken “to the hospital to be checked out by a doctor.”

“I told him I did not want to go, that I would go to a doctor myself. I refused, but when the deputy asked the paramedic if I should go, the EMT said yes, and the deputy told me he would handcuff me if I didn’t comply,” Rothwell said.

He said the incident happened May 1 of last year and that he is getting ugly mail from a collection agency and that it has hurt his credit.

Commissioner Kevin Shea spoke out first and said the man did indeed have a constitution right to refuse, that it was a direct violation to make him go to the hospital.

“It was an abuse of authority. I find this appalling and most disturbing,” Shea told Chief Don Adams his fellow commissioners.

Rothwell said he did not have any insurance to pay the ambulance bill and felt his rights had been violated.

Shea made a motion to wave the fee. When asked, Chief Don Adams said there was no policy on this situation.

“I think the paramedic did the right thing,” Adams said. “I stand up for my firefighters.”

Commissioner Linda Carter suggested that the board could face a lawsuit if the board voted against having in the fee waived.

Others on the board – David Adams, Larry Becker and Jeff Berndt, the chairman, didn’t agree and voted against waiving the fee, saying by doing so it would set a precedent that they didn’t think should happen.

The vote was 3 to 2 and failed.

Rothwell said he had sent a letter to former Assistant Chief Diane Watson in July of last year explaining what happened and asked for the fee to be waived but never heard back until he was contacted by a persistent bill collector. Watson is no longer with the department.

“I thought it had been taken care of,” he said.

Rothwell, who is 54, said he has was diagnosed with Diabetes and now takes medication for it.

After the vote against his bid for having the bill waived, he said he was going to contact an attorney, got up and walked out.

“It just wasn’t right for them treat me this way. I wonder how many others have been forced to go to the hospital in an ambulance. We have a right to refuse medical treatment if we are understand the situation and I did,” he said after the meeting.

“The paramedic was wrong and so was the deputy,” he said.

The board did instruct Chief Don Adams to come up with a policy and educate the paramedics about such situations. Even though the board voted not to waive the fee, members indicated that EMTs should know that a person has a right to refuse medical treatment.